DURHAM, N.H. โ November 16, 2013 โ W. Jeffrey Bolster grew up with an affinity for the sea. He has spent his life fishing, sailing and seeing firsthand the changes taking place in the North Atlantic.
So it is no wonder that his professional life would follow this passion. For 23 years, Bolster has been teaching early American history at the University of New Hampshire. He has contributed to five books looking at various aspects of maritime history, including two that he solely researched and wrote. Both of those books, including his most recent, "The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail," have earned international acclaim.
This year, "The Mortal Sea'' earned both the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Prize and the James Rawley Prize in Atlantic History. Columbia University named Bolster one of two recipients of the 2013 Bancroft Prize, considered one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history.
Bolster spent about a decade researching and writing the real-life parable.โจโจIt is largely a sad story of a cornerstone American industry that has been in peril for more than 150 years, long before the advent of factory trawlers.
It is a story about the long impact of humans on their environment and the dire consequences attributable to the idea that the sea and its abundance were immortal and everlasting.
Read the full story at NewHampshire.com